Joe Miller is 6ft 4in tall, weighs 19 stone, has muscles bulging from places you never knew existed and drives a golf ball routinely over 400 yards. He once drove through the back of a green on a 568-yard par-5. And now he wants to play on the main tour.

‘It would be a big shake-up for golf,’ says Miller. He’s not wrong.

This 32-year-old from Barnet in North London is the reigning World Long Drive champion, having also won the title in 2010. He swings a club around and sometimes above 150mph. His ball speed has topped 220mph. Watching him blast monster drive after monster drive into the stratosphere on a sweltering day at his Essendon Country Club base in Hertfordshire is one of the most jaw-dropping sights in all of sport.

Joe Miller poses for Sportsmail at his Essendon Country Club base in Hertfordshire

Miller is the man with the monster drive - and now he has his eyes on making it on to the tour

The 32-year-old weighs more than 19 stone and can drive a ball more than 450 yards

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His swing is utterly brutal. The club wraps round his neck and the shaft slaps him on the back as Miller loads up all his power on his right leg, almost snapping the driver in half (“I’ve broken two this week,” he admits.) His left foot is only connected to the ground by the tips of his toes at the end of his backswing. The whirlwind release emits an almighty crack as titanium pulverises golf ball – when he hits a 2-iron the noise actually hurts my ears – and both feet jump at impact before he lands and marches after the shot.

‘I've never come across a golfer yet that hasn't just sat back and gone: “F*** me... what was that!’ he laughs – and he includes the best players in the world along with weekend hackers in that reaction. His secret is simple: ‘Power and speed.’

The likes of Rory McIlroy could soon have more of an opportunity to appreciate Miller’s talent up close and uncomfortably personal. He talks excitedly about accepting an invite to play in the Scottish Open pro-am on July 12 – if European Tour chief executive Keith Pelley has the eye for innovation and growing the game that he appears to have, don’t be too surprised to see Miller paired up with McIlroy on the day.

Miller puts his ability to drive the ball far down to endless practice as well as power and speed

The sound of club on ball makes a loud crack as Miller fires off another long drive

The Englishman generates an incredible amount of power as he revs up before the release

The club slaps the long drive champion Miller on the back as he follows through on his swing

All of which begs the question: if he hits the ball so far, why not become a tour pro and play for the mega-millions up for grabs every week?

‘It would be great if it was that easy,’ Miller laughs again. ‘Playing the game of golf and being the best striker of a ball is two different things completely. On the range I hit a 5-iron further than anyone, so the strike is better than anyone in the world, because of the speed and the fact it’s coming out the middle of the club. But going out onto the golf course is a completely different game. You can strike the ball horribly but you can still score. Hitting the ball over 400 yards with a driver, you can’t do that as a one-off, it takes hours of practice and building up to on the day.

‘Yes its a big advantage and if I had my time again maybe I’d put more time into playing golf but I put my time into long drive, so here we are.’

There’s a but.

‘Who knows what happens in the future, maybe I will go down the golfing route. I would love to. I think it would be a big shake-up for golf. There would be a few rule changes I think – there would be no-one standing near the fairways because they’d just end up dead! TV crew would be wearing hard hats. I don't even know how they would allow people standing out there - if you get hit in the head with a golf ball you’re in big trouble, especially at these speeds. So I think some things would change.

‘These courses are designed in such a way that people are complaining about how far the ball travels. So if someone swings it 25mph faster than the rest and is shooting under par... you’d have to wait for every green to clear.’

Miller won the 2016 Long Drive world final with a 423-yard blow. In one match he hit so far that his ball went into a patch of rough that the organisers thought was unreachable, stopping the ball prematurely at 437 yards. So it’s fair to say that many par-4s on the pro tours would be in range, or close to.

Miller's strength is key - and he says so many golfers get their gym work out wrong

Miller uses his expertise and background in weightlifting to help him out on the driving range

Miller can strike a ball further than every pro tour player, but says a transition won't be easy

The benchmark for a long drive in competition remains 300 yards, with the likes of McIlroy and Dustin Johnson often pushing 350 yards. Miller hits routinely over 400 yards and can even hit his putter nearly 300 yards, a mind-blowing trick shot that he shows off to corporate clients. A 2-iron is his staple off many tees, allowing him both power and control.

‘I was about 12 or 13 when it was evident my dad had spawned a bit of a freak!’ says Miller, but his background is not just that of a golfer but also a weightlifter. He has dead-lifted 260kg, squatted 260 kg, bench-pressed 190kg and consumes around 4,500 calories most days. He admits: ‘Some people will look at those numbers and say “Jesus, that's not a golfer that’s a strongman.”’ With his bulging biceps and hulking shoulders he looks more suited to the back row of a scrum than a putting green.

‘I'm just waiting for them to start Happy Gilmore 2,’ he jokes. ‘I've tried it once or twice in practice, but you have to be quite unique to do a Happy Gilmore. I don't do it cos I don't want to trip over and smash my face on the floor!’

Tiger Woods led the age of golfers hitting the gym, but says the wrong routine is damaging

The cult Adam Sandler comedy is of a huge-hitting newcomer, who runs up to the ball before shots, ruffling feathers on the pro tour, but Miller says the game’ s stars react very differently to him. ‘They love it. They appreciate it even more than Joe Public would because they know actually what it takes, just as I know how hard it is to do what they do.

‘They know to swing at that speed and to hit the ball in the middle of the face and actually get the ball to go straight and 400 yards is near on impossible for them. But there’s a mutual appreciation.’ If he ever were to become a direct opponent, it would be interesting to see whether his rivals would remain so appreciative.

They might also sit up and take notice of Miller’s strong views on the gym work many of the game’s best players, including McIlroy and Tiger Woods, are increasingly committing to, and which some critics have suggested could be a cause of unnecessary injuries while providing dubious gains on the golf course.

‘Golfers don't come from a gym background, so they're not clued up on it at all,’ says Miller. ‘Rory McIlroy, same as Tiger Woods, they were golfers first then they found the gym. If you don't find the gym in the right way…. (injuries) do happen.

Miller is hopeful of a future on the tour but has a lot to learn before mixing with the very best

‘I've seen some of the videos they do, they're jumping on boxes, jumping back off boxes, and that’s just the stupidest thing you can do in the world. Most injuries in the gym come when people are not quite concentrating. For example when they’re doing box jumps, they step back and that is one of the biggest causes of snapping your ankle in the world.

‘There's certain movements that I've seen golfers do that I 100 per cent disagree with. It’s not what they need to be doing and it’s not what they should be doing. And it’s not what I do. But I come from a gym background at the same time as a golfing background. I understand gyms. I've managed gyms, run gyms, done personal training - injury prevention is a big priority.

‘I point-blank disagree with the way most golfers train in the gym. They don't understand the basics of strength building and strength training. Some of the stuff I see them doing is pointless, it never helps any of them.

‘I've never seen a long driver win a world championship by jumping up and down on a box, or some of the stuff I have seen them doing. Jason Zuback (the five-time Long Drive world champion) was an Olympic lifter, I've seen benefits in what guys like this do.

‘Do they cause injury in doing what they do? Sometimes. I just wish they had better people telling them what to do in the gym and doing it the right way. I've seen Rory squat, for example, and it’s not the best.’

Miller has hit the gym on the morning we meet, working on his forearm and bicep strength to the extent that his arms cramp up after every shot he hits. Yet it is instructive that he warms up by hitting gentle flop shots with his sand wedge, trying to land his ball in a can 30 yards away, and he admits to getting as much pleasure from a good chip as a massive drive.

Inside this freakishly long hitter is the soul of a true golfer, and a desire to shake up the world.